Finding Dora's Computer
by Jolo Atlantis
Summary: Ever noticed how the Dora the Explorer show is much like a computer game, complete with a mouse cursor that clicks on things? Well, 19 year old Mac, a Los Angeles native, is about to find out.
1. Introduction

Introduction

Oh, hi! My name's Mac. I'm a 19 year old computer geek. I live with my parents in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, California. Now, I was a weird guy. For a start, I liked dinosaurs and evolution but failed in mathematics. But do you know what the weirdest thing was? One day, I found the computer where Dora the Explorer, yes the real Dora, lives!


	2. Chapter 1 - Strange Happenings

"And this, Darwin said, is a prime example of natural section!", said my professor, who was talking about Charles Darwin and the evolutionary theory. "For sure the world will be amazed and accept ME as the founder of evolutionary biology!"

"That concludes our lecture class. Don't forget to pass your research paper assignment on Monday!"

"Oh, no!" I thought. "I haven't even started yet!" I remembered I couldn't even start it because the computer in my house was being repaired. So I asked my seatmate for help.

"Uh, hey, Joe, can I borrow your computer for a while please? I need to use it for my research paper."

"I'm sorry, Mac, but I was grounded and I can't even think about it" said Joe, sadly. "You can try in the library, there's also lots of good books there too."

So off I went to the school's library, which was about three rooms from my current room. However, about halfway there, I saw a strange bright light. I seemed to be drawn toward the light, and then, I blacked out.

I woke up, realizing, I wasn't in my college anymore.

The air was warm and hot. I seemed to be near a house of some sort. From the temperature of the air I can tell this is definitely not California.

There were two doors with curtains in front of me. I tried to open them, and saw they were unlocked. "Who would leave their doors unlocked in this, whatever this place is?" I thought for a moment.

"Hello?" I called out. "Is anyone home?" No one answered, but I could tell there were some people recently. Boxes and boxes of children's toys were all over the living room, as well as an unfinished drawing of some weird girl with a big head. It looked familiar, but I can't place my finger on it. But what caught my eye was the computer on the desk.

Now, I would probably be looked down upon for using someone else's computer without their permission, but I decided to be like Goldilocks and be adventurous. That's when I noticed how weird the computer is.

The monitor was green, instead of the traditional white or black, and seemed to be wider at the top than at the bottom. The keyboard was the same shade of green as the monitor, but with the standard black keys. And the mouse was wireless, which wasn't that weird at all, except that it was blue and that it rested on an orange mouse pad.

I tried to turn it on, but I couldn't find the power button anywhere. Then I noticed there was a maroon colored book on the side, with a picture of the computer on the cover. I figured this was the manual.

It read, "Welcome to your new Mouse Computer. Your new computer was designed with the best mousing experience in mind. To begin, turn on your computer by clicking on the special Magic Mouse that came with your computer."

"Huh" I thought. "This was weird, but I'll go try it anyway." I put my right hand on the mouse. It was warm, but it definitely wasn't the weather. It seems to be the warmth of life.

I pushed down my index finger, clicking the left button of the mouse. Sure enough, the computer turned on.

After a long wait, a login screen appeared. There was only one profile registered on the computer. It was called "Dora", and its profile picture looked like the kid's drawing I saw earlier, except that it was much more realistic. As if it was a real girl.

I clicked on it, and saw that it had no password. That's when I noticed how weird her desktop was.

From the looks of it, I can tell that the computer was running some version of Mac OS. However it seems to be heavily modified. The menu bar and dock were green, not gray, and the desktop background was some stock image of banana leaves. But most importantly, the cursor was blue, the same shade as the mouse, but unlike any other cursor I've seen, it points to the right, not to the top-left. And everytime I clicked on the mouse, there was this sound like a combination of a standard mouse click and a Morse code telegraph.

But I needed to get my research paper done. Finding resources was easy because there were lots of books in the house and every computer comes with a default Internet browser. But I needed a word processor so I can type up my research.

Checking through every folder, and practically every part of the computer accessible to me, I couldn't find even a single word processor or even a single text file. But then I noticed a folder I have never even noticed before.

It was on the desktop, and unlike the standard blue, it was brown. I could swear it wasn't there before. It was titled "Dora". Bravely, I double-clicked the mouse to open it.

Much to my surprise, there's no word processor. There's only one file, called " " Its icon was, you guessed it, that strange big headed girl, but this time, it was drawn in a cartoon style. Curious, I clicked on it.

There was a cartoon style main screen that appeared, which finally ceased by thinking. That large headed girl was Dora from the Dora the Explorer cartoon!

A text box appeared. It said "enter your name". "Huh" I thought. "I thought this was a Mouse Computer, am I supposed to click?" Putting it off, I typed in my name "Mac", and moved the cursor towards the "OK" button. With curiosity and courage working hand-in-hand, I bravely clicked on the computer mouse.

A notice appeared, saying "This is an interactive talking software. It will adress you by name and you are able to interact with the characters using only your voice." I thought this was cool, but what happened next literally surprised me to be honest.

The Dora the Explorer opening sequence played. I think it was the one from Season 3-4, if I'm coreect. I haven't seen the show in ages.

After the opening sequence played, the main menu appeared. Dora appeared and said "Hola, soy Dora! Do you want to go on an adventure? Click on me, then!"

Of course I didn't want to go, but I swear, I swear will all my heart, that the mouse moved from under my hand, and then clicked on Dora. I didn't know what happened next because I literally didn't want to look at that really weird computer.

When I finally looked up, Dora said, "Hi Mac! I really want to see you. But first I need something from Backpack. Can you help me? Say Backpack!"

"Great. Just great" I thought "I knew this will happen." So I said, "Backpack!" as loud as I can.

To my surprise, Backpack appeared at the first time. From what I remember she usually appears after the third time. She sang her infamous rhyme, then said "Mac! Dora really wants to see you. Can you click on what will help Dora see you?"

I swear I saw the mouse move on its own again. As Backpack enumerated the thinhs I can click on, the cursor moved along with it. "Is this what she needs?" Backpack said, as the cursor moved over a picture of a necklace. "Is this what she needs?" The cursor moved again, this time over a picture of a music box. "Is this what she needs?" The cursor pointed at the portal, before moving back to its original position.

Finally I was able to regain control over the mouse. I clicked, ...or at least I tried (controlling a right pointing cursor is so hard) on the necklace, then the music box, then finally on the portal, which happened to be the right answer. Then I saw something I'd never expect Dora to do.

She said the word "Teleportar!" which I'm assuming means "teleport", and all of a sudden, the bright light appears again in front of the computer screen, while I'm still holding the mouse. Then what happens next will be the biggest shock I've ever had in my life...

I was on a dirt path in some forest, and I could feel that I had bruises all over my body. When my vision cleared, I saw Dora looking up on me. "Was this some sort of dream or anything?" I muttered.

"No, this isn't a dream Mac." Dora replied. "You're in my world!"

I was shocked. Why am I in Dora's world? Furthermore, how did I even get here in the first place?!

Then I remembered. The portal! I was tricked into releasing the portal by that mouse! I then turned to Dora and said, "Why did the mouse bring me here?"

She replied, "I need some help, and you were the perfect one who could help me! And you need some help too! Meet, Blue Cursor!"

I looked up, and saw that strange blue cursor floating above me. It now had a face. It opened its mouth, and a cute little girl's voice came out. "Hi Mac! I'm Blue Cursor! I'm here to help! If you need me, just click on the mouse!"

I did a thank you gesture, not wanting to blush, and then turned towards Dora, who called for her trusty Map. After doing his infamous rhyme, he said "First go to the bridge, then through the gate, then we'll see what Dora needs your help for, Mac."

"Bridge, gate, surprise. Got it." I told Map. He went back into Dora's backpack, and the five of us strated heading for that surprise place Map was talking about.


	3. Chapter 2 - Journey Through the Computer

So the five of us, me, Blue Cursor, Dora, Map and Backpack, were trudging through the forest, in search of this surprise place that Map mentioned ago. All of a sudden, I heard a sound in the trees.

"I know that sound anywhere!" said Dora. "It's Swiper! Mac, you're a fan of my show! You know what to say!"

"If only I remembered..." I thought. "Wasn't it "Swiper, no swiping!"

Swiper the nasty fox appeared in front of us. He pointed his arms forward, as if trying to steal from us, then said "Oh man!" That's great, I stopped Swiper on the first time. I felt really proud of myself.

After a while, we finally came to the first stop. The bridge! However, the bridge was broken, with big and little pieces of wood floating on the river. I knew what will happen next, an interactive segment.

"I know who will help us!" said Dora enthustiastically. "Senor Tucan! Can you help us?"

Senor Tucan, that Spanish-speaking toucan, landed next to Dora, who exchanged some Spanish words with him.

Then Dora turned to me again. "Click on the big or small pieces to tell Senor Tucan what piece to lift. Say "grande" for big, or "pequeno" for small."

Click? How will I click? I'm now inside the computer, not outside it. But how will I click?

Then I remembered. I brought the magical blue computer mouse with me. I clicked on it, and Blue Cursor floated in front of me. "Hi, Mac! How may I help you?" she said in that adorable little girl voice.

"I need you to click on the big and small pieces of wood on the river, so we can cross the bridge."

So the first piece of wood was considerably large, about as long as me lying down. I said "grande" for big, and Blue Cursor immediately clicked on a big piece on wood for Senor Tucan.

Next was a piece of wood half the size of the first. I said "pequeno" for small, and Blue Cursor clicked on the small piece of wood. The last piece of wood was the same size as the first, so I said "grande" again.

As they say it in the show, "We did it!" Or rather, I did it. All by myself. I even learned the Spanish words for big and small. Grande, big, and pequeno, small. Not bad for being inside a computer game.

Later on we reached the second stop, the gate. The gate, as expected, is locked. However, I think I saw a key.

"Dora, look! I found a key!" I said. Dora ran, and saw the key. She pointed out the gate has 4 points, and the key has 4 points. So the key must open the gate.

To my surprise, it did. That was surprislying quick for an obstacle in a children's computer game to be honest.

After a long walk, we finally found the surprise place. It was a golden sculpture of a cursor (thankfully pointing in the right direction) with a shining white light inside. "This is Cursor Portal" Dora explained. "It can take us anywhere in the computer! And I'm almost about to be free!"

I was startled by the last thing she said. "Dora, what do you mean, "free?"

"Well", Dora said. "We aren't just computer programs. We're magic programs. We can do anything we want!"

Magic programs? Do those really exist? I thought it was just part of my wild imagination. But no, everything in Dora's world is 100% real.

"Because we can do anything we want, I wanted to explore the whole wide world! But I am trapped inside this computer game. Luckily, the Cursor Portal is there, but it needs a magical mouse to open. And you have the magical mouse!"

"Okay" I replied, and tried to activate the portal by clicking on the mouse. It worked. A bright light soon engulfed us all. And I blacked out.

I woke up, and realized, I wasn't in the Dora the Explorer game anywhere.

The air was fresh and warm. There was the sounds of various jungle animals. We seemed to be on top of a tree canopy.

"Where are we?" Dora asked, startled by the new scenery. "All I know is that we're somehwere in the computer."

Sadness overcame my heart as I remember my Mom and Dad. Even thought I've been here for quite a short time, I already shed tears when I think of them.

I reached into my pocket to grab my phone and call my parents. But it was gone. All I can find is my computer mouse.

Distressed, I clicked the mouse to summon Blue Cursor. I asked her where my phone is.

"Your mouse has absorbed the power of the phone" she said. "It can now call, make texts, download apps and more. But you need a computer to use those powers."

I asked Dora where we can find a computer. "I think there's one in that village below."

A village I've never even noticed until now. But now I can hear the sounds of tribal drums coming from the town center. Desperate, I climbed down the tree before Dora, Backpack and Map.

At the bottom of the tree there was a small hut. A small fire was burning in the garden, but otherwise, there's no trace of anyone. But thankfully, there was a computer in the hut.

It was exactly the same as Dora's computer, right down to the shades of colors the different parts are. So I clicked on its own computer mouse to turn on the computer.

Unlike Dora's computer, there was no login screen. If you turn on the computer it automatically brings you to the desktop. On the desktop, everything's exactly the same as usual. The green menu bar and dock, the brown folders, and even the same strange right-pointing blue cursor that made a funny sound when you clicked on it.

Anyways, I was here to use my mouse's phone functionality. So I moved my mouse on the menu bar, and clicked on Help. Clicking through the topics, I saw the one that I thought would help me. It was called "Using Other Mice".

It read, "Transferring data? Bought a new Mouse Computer? With Mouse Computer's exclusive Data Mouse technology, transferring information is simple. To upload data from your other Mouse Computers, simply place your mouse on the special Magic Mouse Pad and click the mouse. Your data will be automatically transferred."

Now that one's weirder than the "click to turn on" feature. So I got my own computer mouse, placed it on the orange mouse pad, and clicked on it. In an instant, my phone's interface appeared. But what's amazing is that I can click at it with my mouse!

With the power of a full mouse and keyboard, I typed in a text message for my Mom and Dad, saying "I'm on an adventure with Dora from the Dora the Explorer cartoon. Yes the real Dora the Explorer. I won't be back for a while. When I'm back, I'll explain everything. Love, Mac."

But there is only one problem. A computer isn't as portable as a phone. So I thought of something. I put the computer, keyboard, both mice and the mouse pad in a wheelbarrow, and hooked the wheelbarrow up to a horse so we can ride instead of continouosly turing our feet. A short time after, Dora hopped on the back of the horse, and we rode away.

A villager from the market approached us. "Where are you going?" "We want to know what this place is." "Well the name of this town is Desktopia. Unfortunately that's all I know. If you have anymore questions go to the palace over yonder. I'm sure the King knows a lot of things. But beware, the road is dangerous." Thanking him, we went over the dirt path in search of the King's palace.

Desktopia, what a strange name it is. Then I remember, the computer's desktop background was a canopy of banana trees. Maybe this village is right under the desktop background.

As we approached the castle, a man screamed at as. "Halt!"

"Didn't you read the sign!? "The road ends here"!"

Now, none of us actually noticed the sign. Being the inquistive teenager I am, I asked. "Uh, we're looking for the King. Why did you block our path?"

"It is a move the King deserves", the man said.

"We used to be a prosperous village, until the new King came to our land."

"He promised us great wealth and recognition, but instead, he delivered the opposite. In fact, he only delivered hunger and sadness."

"Ever since that day, our King has been getting greedier and greedier. He steals more than ever and almost never cares about others."

"He's even stolen from the Elemental Kingdom. This is why his castle glows with the forces of the elements."

"On the plus side, it looks beautiful" I remarked.

"But beware, you don't want to insult the King", the man warned.

The two of us stopped in a house on the side of the road. I unloaded the computer from the cart and laid down on the small bed. Just then, an old woman came in.

"Oh, my I have some unexpected visitors today!" she remarked. "May I know your names?"

"Uh, I'm Mac." I said. "And I'm Dora" said Dora.

"Oh nice to meet you two! Can I make some soup for you, hungry travellers?" she asked.

I agreed, and later the three of us sat down at the table for some soup. Just as I was about to make my first sip, I heard a loud trumpet and a voice.

"Make way for the King!"

As I looked out of the window, I saw the greedy King, clothed in the finest of clothes, in a golden chariot, drawn by two magnificent white horses. I didn't want to insult the King, so I bowed down when he caught my attention.

Just then, a young girl, about the same age as my real world crush, Cheryl, came into the room. She had a tunic as red as the setting sun, and a skirt with equally intense colors. Just then, the old woman came and hugged her.

"Ada, my sweetheart. What were you doing today?"

"Oh, hi Mom. I was protecting the last Elemental Amulet from the King."

Curious, I asked the girl, "Ada, what are those Elemental Amulets you mentioned?"

"Well, there are 4 amulets, one for each of the four elements, fire, earth, wind and water."

4 elements? I learned about the Periodic Table in school. There are over 100 elements. And fire, earth, wind and water aren't any of them.

"Well, first, there's the Intricate Amphora, that represents water. Wielding it will allow its holder to control the seas, the weather, and storms. However, the King has stolen it and used it to power the water fountains in his castle, drying up the fields at the same time."

"That's too sad" I remarked. The village won't survive if there's no water.

"Then there's the Powerful Cloud, which represents air. Wielding it would allow anyone to control the wind, lightning and the animals of the sky, but the King has stolen it too. He used it to maintain the birdcages in his palace and left entire civilizations wrecked."

"And just yesterday, he stole the Ancient Seed, which represent earth. Wielding it would allow anyone to control the seasons and forces of nature. He just used it to grow gigantic trees, also decimating entire forests at the same time. And we can't let him steal the last one, or he'll gain ultimate power."

"And what is that amulet?"

"The Primordial Flame. It represents fire. If combined with the other four amulets, the whole universe is in his control, literally."

"Oh no. We can't let that happen!" I exclaimed. "So where is it?"

"It's in the Volcano Kingdom. But you must have a brave heart to enter."

Ada looked at us. "I know you all have brave hearts."

That's a relief. But the question is, how will we get there?

"To get to the Volcano Kingdom, you must fly." Ada said, seemlingly reading my mind. But how will we fly? Humans don't have wings.

Blue Cursor suddenly appeared in front of me. "Come on, follow me!" I held onto Blue Cursor's tip, while Dora was holding onto my legs. Suddenly, Blue Cursor flew against the desktop, while the horse-cart with the computer followed us on the land. Blue Cursor dropped us onto a folder on the other side of the computer desktop.

Suddenly, I landed in the middle of two volcanoes. The air was warm, warmer even than in the house with Dora's computer. Then I noticed a door in one of the volcanoes. "That's the entrance to the Fire King's castle!" said Ada, and we all went in search of the Primordial Flame.

We slid down a slide carved of volcanic rock, while looking around to see the main vent of the volcano and intricate paintings of the walls that will put the Sistine Chapel to shame.

At the bottom of the slide stood the Fire King and Fire Queen. They looked like Ada, complete with their sunset colored royal robes. Ada bowed in front of them and said, "Your Highness, we are sorry to interrupt you, but we bring bad news."

"What is it?" the king demanded. "Speak, child!"

"The Intricate Amphora, Powerful Cloud and Ancient Seed have been stolen!"

"What? By whom?" The king shouted angrily, with steam rising from his head. I honestly thought that was only possible in cartoons. Guess I was wrong.

"The Greedy King of Desktopia." Ada proclaimed. "He's stealing them for he thinks that he is the only one worthy enough to wield their powers."

"If you permit, Your Highness, I shall speak." I said, bowing in respect.

"Speak, young one!" The King ordered.

"He wishes to have ultimate power of all the civilizations, and this could mean and end to his kingdom, your kingdom, and possibly, all kingdoms across the universe."

"You speak with words beyond your years" The King said.

I smiled in agreement.

"This is true. The day of the prophecy has come!" The Queen said. "We shall pay our astrologer twice his weight in gold!"

"What is the prophecy, your Highness?" I asked.

"It speaks of a boy who speaks with words beyond his years, accompanied by a girl with a taste for adventure, and a magical machine that can do anything they wish." I believe the Fire King was talking about me, Dora and the magic computer. That was quite unexpected to say the least.

Later that day, the three of us, me, Dora and Ada, sat on the balcony of the Fire King's palace. The sun was setting and the city below shone with the lights of a thousand flames. As I was looking down on the city below, the Fire King approached me.

"This is a gift for you." he said, holding a piece of red cloth the same color as the sunset sky. "Thank you" I said in acceptance.

I opened it up, and saw a large pendant, the same size as both of my hands, glowing with the reddest reds I have ever seen in my life. There was a carving of a flame symbol on it. Even though I've never seen it before, I knew what it was: the Primordial Flame.

Ada was overjoyed when I told her the news. She told us it's time for us to go back to Desktopia. I clicked on the mouse to call for Blue Cursor, who was also excited when she saw the amulet. So I held on to Blue Cursor's tip, Dora holding onto my legs, and the horse and computer following us on the land.

When we came back, we landed in Ada's mother's house. She was sweeping the floor we the three of us landed in her sofa. "Now that we have the Primordial Flame, what do we do?" I said.

"How about handing it to the King?" said a raspy sounding male voice.

Several of the King's guards had surrounded the house. There was no way to escape. The guards pointed their lances at us through the windows. I shouted "No!" but the gurads only moved closer. Furious, I grabbed the mouse and drew an X shape in the air. Four of the guards flew back.

Suddenly, Swiper came through the window and snatched the Primordial Flame from my hand. I shouted "Swiper no Swiping!" but he didn't listen. He handed the amulet to a gaurd, and ran away, saying "Just doin' my job!" And I thought that always worked.

Then I noticed, Dora and Ada were gone.

I clicked on the mouse to ask Blue Cursor where they went.

"They were taken away by the King's men." she said. "But I can track their location on the computer."

I sat down at the computer table, grabbed the mouse, and moved the cursor towards the dock. I clicked on Maps.

"Backpack has a tracking device inside her. That flashing purple dot is her tracker." said Blue Cursor. "It shows they're about to go to the King's dungeon."

I didn't want my friends in the dungeon, so I loaded the computer into the wheelbarrow, and sat down on the horse. I clapped the reins and set off to the King's castle.

On the way, I asked Blue Cursor how we should save my friends. She said, "Use the mouse. Draw something."

"Draw? What do you mean?"

"Draw something. Maybe an ice cream cone."

I grabbed the mouse and drew a rudimentary drawing of an ice cream cone in the air. Suddenly, an ice cream cone appeared in my hand.

"The magical mouse has the power to make drawings come to life. You can use that to save your friends."

I thanked Blue Cursor, but I was too busy eating my free ice cream.


	4. Chapter 3 - Across the Worlds

Inside the dungeon sat Dora and Ada, hoplessly pounding at the cold stone walls, desperate to esacpe. They had been trapped in there for almost three hours, but they already miss me.

Suddenly, the King burst through to the door.

"Guards!" He proclaimed. "Show my flithy prisoners what I've got!"

"The Elemental Amulets!" cried Ada. "He's got all four of them!"

"Yes. That's right, my lady." said the king. "Looky here. This one's for water, this one's for earth, the other's for air and the last one's for fire. Aren't they pretty?"

"Yes they are and they're not yours!" shouted Dora and Ada.

"They're mine! All mine!" cried the King, leaving Dora and Ada once again trapped in the cold, dark dungeon.

Now, back to me.

I've been travelling for, I don't know. 60 miles? I'm not sure. It's hard to tell distance when you're on a horse.

I can already see the disastrous effects of the King stealing the magic amulets. The rivers were dry, the air was warm, the trees were drying up and the sun's getting dimmer. But it has just enough light to show that the castle was over the hill, about 10-20 miles from here.

At long last I finally reached the castle. The sun was getting dim, and fast. I needed to save my friends. But first I need to know where in the castle is the dungeon.

I got off the horse and unloaded the computer from the wheelbarrow. I got the computer mouse from my pocket, put it on the mouse pad, and clicked on it. The computer screen woke up.

I noticed I wasn't in the Maps app anymore. I was back on the desktop. That's weird. I know that apps shouldn't always close like that. Curious, I moved the mouse towards the menu bar and clicked on Help.

Clicking through the topics, I saw one that interested me. It was called "Monitor Basics." It read, "Like all parts of your Mouse Computer, your Magic Monitor was designed for the best experience." Best experience? How can you say it's the best experience when an app closes on you?

"Your Magic Monitor automatically turns off after 10 minutes of no mouse or keyboard activity. Click the mouse to wake up the computer screen. To save energy, your computer automatically closes apps when your monitor sleeps. You can change this in your computer's preferences."

So then I closed the Help window, moved the mouse towards the dock and clicked on System Preferences.

I then clicked on the search bar, and typed "monitor close app". A search result appeared, and it said "Monitor". So I clicked on the "Monitor" preference pane.

At the bottom of the page I saw a check box, labeled "Close apps when computer sleeps". It was checked. So I moved the mouse and clicked on the check box, de-checking it. Now my apps won't close everytime the monitor turns off.

My work with the computer settings done, I closed the System Preferences window. Moving my mouse back towards the dock, I clicked on the Maps app.

The map took a while to load, but it showed an aerial view, so I can only see that Backpack's tracker is somewhere within the castle. I moved the mouse away from the mouse pad, and clicked on it to summon Blue Cursor.

"Blue Cursor, where in the castle are Dora and Ada?" I asked.

Without saying a word, Blue Cursor immediately flew to the computer screen. Almost instantly, the blue computer mouse glowed. As Blue Cursor was moving, the mouse was moving too. Blue Cursor clicked on the 3D button, and at the same time the left button of the mouse pushed down, as if someone physically clicked on it.

"Dora and Ada are in the dungeon." said Blue Cursor, pointing at the 3D view of the castle. "The dungeon is on the third floor of the castle."

"But how will I get there?" I asked. "If we go in the regular way we'll be thrown in the dungeon too."

"Mac, you gotta draw something!" said Blue Cursor.

So I grabbed the mouse, and began to draw a ladder. Suddenly, a giant rope ladder appeared, streching from the ground to the dungeon window. I began climbing.

"Dora!" I said, looking through the dungeon window. "Thank good ness you're safe!"

"There's no time for this" said Dora. "Mac, use your magic mouse. Write the word "share".

So I grabbed the mouse, held down the left mouse button, and wrote the word "Share" in the air.

The walls of the dungeon began to crack.

"Write more!" Dora said. "Write it over and over again!"

I wrote the word "share" in the air like 3 times. And every time I finished writing one word, the cracks in the walls grew bigger.

At the third time, one of the walls of the castle had fell down into rubble. I could see the remains of emeralds, quartz and sapphire crystals embedded in the rock. They seemed to have a glow.

"Mac, write the biggest SHARE that you can." said Dora. "So we can finally get the Elemental Amulets."

I stepped back, grabbed the mouse, clicked on it, and wrote the biggest SHARE I can. It was the biggest word I've ever written, almost the size of a city billboard.

Streams of paint-like energy flew from the words, hitting the case where the four Elemental Amulets were stored. At once, there was a bliding light, a powerful sound, and a force so strong I can only compared to the meteor strike that killed off the dinosaurs.

I woke up ina very different place.

To my right was the King's castle, with one wall completely reduced to rubble. The sun shone with its brightest light. Birds were flying in the sky. A lush forest grew in the distance. And I could even hear the faint sound of the waterfall in the background.

I looked at myself. I was different. Instaed of my usual casual clothes that I often wore to school, I now had a white tunic, glowing like with the sparkle and beauty of 1,000 pearls. I even had a necklace with four crystals on them. The mouse, which was still in my hand, was still blue, but a multi colored light shone from its sensor.

I looked at Dora, and she too had changed.

Her shirt and pants were the same shade of white as mine. And the biggest thing is, we now both have angel's wings sprouting from our backs, which means, we can now fly!

Ada looked at us and said, "Come villagers, for the prophecy has come true!"

"The elemental energy has now been returned to us, the citizens of the Earth, by the Prince and Princess of the Elements!"

Well I guess the Fire King's astrologer was right after all. We were the ones how desereved the Elemental Amulets. Maybe he really should deserve a pay twice his weight in gold. Maybe even thrice.

Several hours later..

Me and Dora stepped into the castle and sat on the thrones, as we took on our jobs as Prince and Princess. We already had the king executed for his vilest of crimes, and had the workers rebuild the castle wall. Then a thought crossed my mind.

"If I'm going to be the prince, then I'm never going to go back to my world. I'm never going so see my Mom and Dad anymore!"

"Me too" said Dora "I will quite miss my Mami and Papi too."

"That is not true" said a voice in the distance.

I looked out of the window. A stream of water had formed in the air. Two dolphins were riding on it. On their backs were carried the Water King and Water Queen.

Two eagles then landed from the hole in the atrium. On them were the Air King and the Air Queen.

From the window, a two headed Western dragon appeared. On one of its heads was the Fire King, and on the other head was the Fire Queen.

Then I heard the clip-clap sound of hooves. Two deer were galloping up the spiral staircase. The Earth King and the Earth Queen were nestled within their antlers.

"You are special. You are tasked with maintaining the balance of this Earth." said the Water Queen. She had long hair that was dyed blue and purple, like the sea. Her robe was the color of a gushing river. And her gown ended in a large fish's tail.

"You are free to go anywhere where your heart wishes" said the Air King. He looked like Napoleon Bonaparte, complete with that curly hair seen in paintings of medieval Frenchmen, except he had a bird's wings. His tunic was shining and light blue, like the sight of the sky above the clouds. His feet were even clawed, like a bird's.

"We're allowed to leave?" I asked, shocked.

"Yes, you are" said the Fire Queen, standing in the corner.

"We'll even let Ubuntu take you there" said the Earth King. He looked like an African hunter. He wore a deer's antlers for his crown, and had a leopard skin robe, complete by a sash that looked like it was woven with grass. He also carried a spear that seemed to be tipped by an emerald.

"Who's Ubuntu?" I asked. All I know Ubuntu is some sort of computer operating system. Yeah, I know, I'm such a nerd.

The Earth King tapped his spear on the ground. Suddenly, a large, powerful cheetah climbed up the stairs and sat, like a dog, beside him. I guess this was Ubuntu.

"But before you go, I'll give you a gift." said the Earth King, handing out a handcarved wooden box. When I opened it, I saw my trusty blue computer mouse. When I clicked on it, I saw Blue Cursor.

"You mean I can keep Blue Cursor?" I asked excitedly.

"Of course you can keep your friend." said everyone at the same time.

So me and Dora climbed onto Ubuntu, who took of faster than any cheetah could run. He ran across the mountains, across the village, across the jungle, then back into Dora's game, past the Cursor Portal, the gate and the bridge. Suddenly, he ran on top of a mountain, them jumped straight into the sky. Not long after, I blacked out.

No, seriously, how many times have I blacked out on this adventure?

I woke up.

I wasn't in Desktopia.

I wasn't even in the computer.

I was... in my room?!

So I somehow went back inside my room. I was on my bed, tucked into my covers. I had by casual clothes back on, and in my hand, for some reason, is the magic blue computer mouse. I glanced onto my side table and saw my alarm clock.

5:38 PM, February 5, 2016.

Huh. I thought it was the 7th. I figured that time in Dora's world was different from time in our world. I have been in Dora's world for three days, yet in my world, I'm only gone for three hours. It's in Albert Einstein's famous Theory of Relativity. Look it up if you've hadn't heard of it yet.

Not long after, my Mom and Dad burst in my room.

"We have some good news and some bad news."

"The bad news is, we couldn't get the computr fixed. I know we said we would fix it for you, but no, it's totally broken. We were supposed to buy you anew one, but there are no cheap good ones here in Los Angeles."

"But the good news is, we did get you a new computer! We had to import it all the way from Mexico. I know somebody may have used is already but now, it's all yours!"

I knew that computer anywhere.

It was the one with a green monitor, a green keyboard, a blue mouse and an orange mouse pad. The one that ran a version of Mac OS, despite it not being made by Apple. The one where the mouse click is more powerful that it usually is. The one with a blue, right pointing cursor that made a funny sound when you clicked on it.

It was the one with the Dora the Explorer game installed. The one that teleported me three days... err... three hours ago. The one with the mouse that moved on its own. The one which fate hate teleported me to.

But strangely, the mouse is gone. Then I remembered, I had the computer mouse with me. To see if this was really that computer, I put the mouse on the mouse pad and clicked on it.

It was indeed that very same computer.

The Dora the Explorer game was still running. It now said "Congratulations, Mac! You've Completed Chapter 1 and Saved the Elemental Kingdom!" I was really proud of myself this time.

I clicked on OK, and after that a new screen appeared. It said "Wanna go to Chapter 2? Click here!" Thankfully, the mouse didn't come alive again. I clicked on Back, which brought me to the main screen. From there I exited the full screen, then clicked on the red X in the left hand corner of the window. Now I can start making this computer truly mine.

I connected the computer to my main house Wifi, then transferred all my files from my old computer to the new one. Now I had lots of files on my old computer, games, photos, videos and whatnot, so it took a long time to transfer. By the time all the files had been tansferred, it was already dark.

Not long after the last file had been tansferred, I was getting ready to go to sleep when a mail message appeared on the computer. Startled, I grabbed the mouse then clicked on it.

It was from Dora.

It said.

"Hi Mac! Did you know it was my birthday today? Yup. Feliz Cumpleanos to Me! I'm now 7 years old. It's the best birthday ever. There's Benny the Bull, Isa the Iguana, Tico the Squirrel even my brother Diego! All my friends were there. I wish you'll come back soon."

I moved the mouse to the left hand corner of the screen, clicking on the word Finder, then moving the mouse down to click on Shut Down. As I moved my mouse towards the word OK to shut down the computer, I smiled, knowing that Dora will always be there for me.

I clicked on the mouse one last time to summon Blue Cursor, then lied down in bed, almost instanly falling asleep.

I had a good dream that night.


	5. Chapter 4 - Dino Dilemma

Early the next morning, I woke up.

I could hear a clicking sound.

I glanced at the clock. It was 3:18 AM, on the 6th of February 2016. It was a Saturday so I don't have school.

As I slowly regained my senses, the clicking sound got louder.

There was a blue glow on my table. I turned on my desk lamp, and saw that it was my computer mouse. But why is it glowing, when I clearly remembered I turned off the computer last night?

I got the computer's manual and turned to the chapter about the computer mouse.

It read, "Your Magic Mouse glows when you recieve a notification. If you don't respond to the notification in 15 minutes, it will make a clicking sound."

So there was a notification 15 minutes ago. But how could I have recieved it, if my computer was turned off?

Then I rememembered.

3:00 AM is often called "the witching hour". This is when evil spirits and magic are said to come out. There have been reports on the Internet about electronic devices, such as TVs, that turn on by themselves at this time.

Maybe the computer was effected the same way.

The clicking sound was getting annoying. I could wake up my parents at this point. So I put my right hand on the computer mouse, then pushed down my index finger to click on it.

The screen woke up. There was a dialog box in the center of the screen.

It was from the Dora the Explorer game.

It said, "Hi Mac! Do you miss me? Well, let's meet again! Then click OK to join me with Chapter 2!"

Of course, I was too tired to go on another adventure with Dora. So I moved the mouse on the left-hand corner of the window to click on X, but I noticed the window was de-selected.

I clicked on the title bar of the window to select it, then clicked on X again to try and close it. But it didn't.

I clicked on it multiple times until I noticed that the X button was greyed out.

So I clicked on the Cancel button near the OK button. It too was grayed out.

Furious, I tried to click outside the window, or even click on Finder to shut down the computer again. But I can't. I was locked with this window.

There was only one thing to do. Click OK and join Dora on the second adventure of the game, even when I'm still (yawn) very tired. So I took an energy bar (very useful to be honest) and clicked on OK.

The Dora the Explorer game opened. It was on the login screen. It said, "Choose your name, or enter a new name"

I clicked on the drop down bar to select my name, and clicked on my name, Mac. In fact, it was the only name registered on the computer!

I clicked on OK. I was immediately sent to the chapter selection screen. Without thinking, I clicked on the icon for Chapter 2.

Suddenly, a blinding light appeared on the computer screen. I felt my body getting sucked into it. Then, for the gazillionth time, I blacked out.

I woke up in Dora's bed.

Her bedroom looked just like my room, except, you know, it had girl's things like dolls and playhouses instead of robots and dinosaurs. I stretched my arms and yawned, when I had accidentally hit Dora with the side of my fist.

"Hi Mac." she said, smiling. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, hi Dora." I replied. "I got your notification on the computer. Speaking of which, where's my computer?"

"It's in the living room." said Dora. "But you can use my computer if you want."

"Sure" I said, as I sat at the computer table.

Now, this computer is unlike the others that I've seen. It has the right shape of monitor, and every part is the right color. Silver monitor, black keyboard, and grey mouse. I asked Dora, "Nice computer. Who made this?"

"Mouse Computers Inc, just like yours" said Dora, standing next to her surprisingly large wardrobe. "But that one's their basic model. It's not as powerful as yours."

So I clicked on the mouse to turn it on, just like every other Mouse Computer. After a while, a login screen appeared. I clicked on the only profile registered, Dora's. But it had a password.

"Dora, what's the password?" I asked. Without saying a word, she went to the computer, grabbed the keyboard, and typed in something. Suddenly her desktop appeared. Needless to say, it was quite diffrent.

Unlike the previous Mouse Computers I've seen, this one is more true to what the original Mac OS should look like. It had a transparent grey menu bar and dock, blue folders and a pink desktop background with faint heart designs. And the cursor, thankfully, is black, points in the right direction, and makes the proper sound!

Then I saw the time. 7:38 AM, Monday, February 8, 2016. Quickly, I called to Dora, "Dora! It's Monday! You'll be late for school!" Then I saw my reflection in the monitor. I was still wearing my sleeping clothes.

Rushing, I frantically searched for a boy's clothes in Dora's surprisingly large wardrobe. I found a pair of pants and a T-shirt. I guess Dora wouldn't mind if I wore the boy's clothes that were somehow in her closet.

I rushed down the stairs and ate my breakfast. I had a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk. Dora was almost finished, but I was rushing to finish it because we were late for school. Thankfully I didn't spill my milk or spit my cereal.

I said goodbye to Dora's mom, as the two of us walked out of the door. Once we were quite some distance from the house, Dora showed me something.

It was a brown computer folder.

"This folder isn't just any folder" said Dora. "It is a magic folder. You can use it to store anything. It never gets full! And what's more, you can bring anything out of it with the click of a mouse!"

I thanked Dora, and we walked off towards Dora's school.

Halfway along the way the way, I suddenly rememebered something big, literally.

I put my mouth to Dora's ear, and whispered, "Dora, you know, I'm a 19 year old teenage boy from Los Angeles, California. Why am I going to school with you, a 6 year old girl, in this -"

"Mexico." Dora finished my sentence. "Don't worry. I'm just tell Miss Sue, my teacher, that you're my big brother from this "Los... An-ge-les..." place. Okay?"

I agreed, and we continued on the path to Dora's school.

We could finally see the schoolyard. Kids were playing in the playground. And what's more, I could see the clock above the door. It was almost 8 o clock. Telling Dora, the both of us ran.

Suddenly, I saw a strange looking bird on the ground. It had black and white feathers. It looked like a magpie.

"Come on Mac, let's play with him!" Dora shouted. So the two of us were playing with the bird, running and jumping around, chasing it, although it seemed to have been a poor flyer. Then I suddenly stopped laughing, tears filling my eyes.

"What's wrong, Mac?" Dora said.

"The bird." I replied. "It reminds me of my home."

"I remember my aunt Emily from Minnesota. She had a pet magpie named Willie. I remember she brought Willie when she visited me for my 5th birthday. I was so happy."

"Even though that was 14 years ago, I still remember it like it was yesterday..."

"Aww, that's too said" said Dora, whose eyes were now as teary as mine.

Suddenly, the bell rang. Classes were about to start. This was no time to be emotional.

As I was running through the halls following Dora to her room, I remembered why the bird looked so weird.

For starters, I remembered it had a toothy snout, and not a beak. Second, it had two claws poking out of its wings. And third, it had a long bony tail with feathers on the end instead of a tail fan. I remembered our biology professor talking about a dinosaur called Archaeopteryx, with the same exact features. What's more is that I read a study that showed Archaeopteryx had the colors of a magpie. Yes, we actually found out what color a dinosaur was.

But I was too focused on the fact that I met a living dinosaur to notice that the parts of my body it touched were glowing.

So finally I reached Dora's classroom. Everone was sitting on their chairs, including Dora. Then I saw her teacher, Miss Sue.

She was standing by the blackboard, holding a pointing stick. She said, "Okay, class, we've got a new classmate today! Do you want to introduce yourself to the kids?"

I was a bit nervous, because I'm quite the shy type honestly.

"Okay... kids... I'm Mac... I'm Dora's big brother... and I'm from Los Angeles... in the country of America..."

The teacher was surprisingly pleased by my introduction. "Thank you for that wonderful introduction, Mac! Please take a seat."

"Gracias, Miss Sue" I said as I sat down beside Dora.

A little while later, Miss Sue started the lesson.

"Okay kids! Time for a fun fact. Did you know that the country of America, where Mac comes from, speaks English?"

All the kids rose and said "No!" at the same time.

"Their alphabet is different from the Spanish alphabet here in Mexico. Why not let Mac sing the American Alphabet Song to show you?"

All the kids stood up and said "Yes!"

Now I was really nervous now.

Thankfully, Dora volunteered to sing it with me. After all, she'd heard and memorized the whole American Alphabet Song on her computer.

Miss Sue was happy again. "Ooh, look a duet!"

The two of us sang. "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L-M-N-O-P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z, Now you know your ABC's, next time won't you sing with me?"

Dora sang "me".

I, roared?

Yes, I roared. Like a lion, but louder. Maybe more like a dinosaur. A Tyrannosaurus rex to be exact.

Everyone looked at me, confused. Even the usually happy-go-lucky Miss Sue was shocked.

No one had roared like a dinosaur so realistically before.

Dora was the most confused out of everyone. She turned to me and said, "Did you just - rooooooaaaaarrr?"

She blinked. She roared too. But hers was different. It sounded like a mix of a bear and a crocodile. I'd imagine that roar belonged to a smaller dinosaur, like a Triceratops.

"Uh, Miss?" I asked.

"Can we go see the school doctor?"

The two of us were rushed to the school clinic, which was unfortunately on the other side of the school building.

After 10 minutes of being pushed on hospital beds, we reached the clinic.

The doctor told us to say "ahhhhh!" She grabbed a flashlight and a magnifying glass. I could see that she seemed to have a look of surprise on her face. She immediately called for the dentist.

The dentist came to me and immediately said, "Have you been drinking a lot of milk?" Confused, I asked "Why?" He told me to look at my teeth in the mirror. I was just as surprised as the doctor.

All my teeth, my molars, my canines and my incisors, were now longer. I rubbed my finger against it and instantly got a papercut. They looked like carnivore teeth. But they didn't look like dog's teeth or bear's teeth, they looked like T. rex teeth. I know because I have a T. rex tooth at home that I bought from a fossil shop.

The dentist went to Dora next, and said the same thing. Her teeth have also grown, but here incisors and canines have grown to look like giant molars. In fact, she had three layers of molars. I remeber several herbivorous dinosaurs have evolved this type of teeth, called "dental batteries". But this type of tooth arrangement I recognized from my visit to the museum in 5th grade, it was the tooth arrangement of Triceratops.

Dora's mom was waiting outside the clinic. She'd recieved a call from the school saying we're sick. She drove us home and we both rested in Dora's room. Suddenly, I feel asleep. I guess lying on abed in a computer game makes you feel sleepy.

I had a dream where I was a naturalist on a boat, searching the world for the feathers of various species of birds. I remember landing on the shore of Egypt where I saw the feather of a falcon. I put it on my head, and I was transformed into Ra, the Egyptian sun god and King of the Egyptian Gods. Suddenly the sun above my head began to grow brighter and brighter until...

I woke up.

The real-world sun is bright. It was 2:52 PM.

Suddenly, a smell came to my nose.

The smell of meat.

Not just meat. It was the smell of raw meat, attracting flies, being carried in a slightly rusted metal cart pushed by a well-bathed man in a market.

Wait, how could I know that?

My sense of smell isn't that strong, although it seems to get slightly better when I smell something nice like a flower or food. And I can't usually track certain smells in one big smell, like, when I eat a pizza with many toppings, I can only smell the main toppings (such as the meat)

Back to the meat, it smelled like it was in the kitchen. But last time I checked, there was no fresh meat in the kitchen. In fact, it's impossible to have meat that fresh in a kitchen, unless you live near a farm, of course.

The meat was being sold in a market 5 miles away. The cart which it was carried in was cleaned with lemon-scented dish soap.

Wait, did I really correctly guess that?

I sat up and brushed my hair, using my fingers as a comb. But it felt different.

It felt like feathers.

I got up and sat at Dora's computer table. I stared into the computer monitor, using it as a mirror.

My human hair was gone. I now had feathers like a lion's mane. It reminded me of how scientists think Tyrannosaurus rex had feathers. Yes, some scientists think T. rex had feathers.

Dora got up. I looked at her, and I was horrified. "Dora, look, your eyelashes!"

"My WHAT?" Dora said, equally horrified. She ran to the computer table and looked at her reflection in the monitor. Instead of eyelashes, she had stubby horns. In fact, she looked like a baby Triceratops.

"What's happening to us?" The both of us cried.

"I know who can help us!" I told Dora. "Follow me!"

The both of us climbed down the stairs and ran toward the living room. I sat in front of my trusty computer, while Dora sat beside me.

I got my magical blue computer mouse and clicked on it. Blue Cursor appeared. She looked terrified. "Dora! Mac! What happened to you?"

"That's what we wanted to know" I said.

Blue Cursor flew around us, examining my feathers and Dora's horns. "I'd say you've been hit with a Dino Spell."

"A Dino Spell? What's that?" Dora asked. And I thought Dora knew everything about magic and spells.

Blue Cursor immediately flew towards the computer screen, which turned on. Once there, she clicked on the Safari icon. She moved herself to the address bar and made a website appear out of nowhere. Then she clicked on it to load the website.

"A Dino Spell is a magical spell used by dinosaurs from the Dinosaur Kingdom" she explained, pointing at the text on the website. "It's a 5 day spell, which means it takes 5 days for the spell to take effect."

"Okay. Got it." I said.

"Over those five days you'll slowly turn into dinosaurs. First, you will start to roar..."

"Had that."

"Then your heads will slowly turn into dinosaur heads, with horns, crests, frills, feathers, you name it..."

"We had that too."

"Then your skin will become more dinosaur-like, with scales, skin or feathers..."

"That's... creepy!" I gulped a little.

"And after that, you'll turn into complete dinosaurs, with only your human-like intelligence and voice to show that you were once human."

"So how do we reverse the spell, Blue Cursor?" I said.

"The spell is irreversible" said Blue Cursor. "No one has ever found a way to break the spell."

"Oh no!" We both cried. "We're going to be dinosaurs forever!"

"But there might be a way..." said Blue Cursor.

Now that's a relief.

"Well, the spell is only used on people who harm birds, the world's only living dinosaurs." she continued. "The only way to reverse the spell is to undo the harm caused to the birds."

"But we never harmed birds. We're kind to nature! Right, Mac?" Dora said.

"Well then, did you meet a bird yesterday?" asked Blue Cursor.

"We saw a dinosaur. An Archaeopteryx." I said. "We played with it for a while. We even played tag!"

"Oh no!" she said. "Maybe that was a dinosaur that came from the Dinosaur Kingdom by mistake."

"So how do we reverse the spell?" Dora asked.

"I don't know yet. Most people spend the rest of their lives as dinosaurs, because they seem to like it, for some reason."

"So how long do they live?" I asked. "Scientists don't know how long dinosaurs can live for."

"They have human lifespans." said Blue Cursor. "I think... um... I don't know... 79 years, average?"

Of course we did not want to spend most of our lives as dinosaurs. So I asked Blue Cursor, "What do you think could break the spell?"

Without saying anything, Blue Cursor clicked on a link in the website, opened a new tab, and dragged the other webpage outside the computer screen. "Follow this map. But remember, you cannot bring anyone or use anyone's help, including mine. Only use what the two of you got."

"We better hurry" I told Dora. "We only have 4 and a half days left!"

The two of us run out the door, with nothing else except the map.


	6. Chapter 5 - The Dinosaur Pack

Together me and Dora ran from the house, looking for a way to keep us as humans. We only have 4 and a half days until we turned into complete dinosaurs.

After five long hours, we reached the edge of a forest. I told Dora to stop so that I could check the map Blue Cursor gave us.

"The map says we should go to the center of the forest." I said, pointing to a flashing red dot on the map.

We ran once again, holding hands each step of the way.

We continued running until sundown came. We stopped in a large clearing.

"I guess we should stay here for the night." I told Dora.

"O...kay..." she replied, with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

Wait, why is Dora so nervous now? I thought she was an explorer. Hardly the type of person that would be nervous about sleeping all alone in a forest.

Honestly, I felt a little nervous too. But it was because of me watching entire seasons of survival shows on TV that I had at least some confidence about it.

"Come on Dora. Don't be nervous. Let's go set up camp so that we can lift our spirits a little."

We got to work. We made a small tent out of dried branches and leaves, and by now only the last bit of sunlight is shining through the forest. We needed light, and fast.

We collected some more dried plant material and put them in a pile. Using two rocks, we set them on fire.

When night came, the fire lit us up like it was daytime.

A few minutes later Dora told me she was getting hungry. A rumble from my stomach confirmed I was too.

There's just one problem: I don't know how to get food in the wild.

I searched all over myself for some thing we could eat. All I had was the half-eaten energy bar that somehow came with me from the real world.

I figured it was enough and the two of use shared the rest.

A few minutes later Dora teared up. "Do you really think we can go back to becoming humans again?"

"I'm sure we weill." I reassured her. "Let's go to sleep now. I'm sure we will feel better in the morning."

And with that, we tucked into our banana leaf blankets and quickly fell asleep.

Or at least, Dora fell asleep, and I stayed awake.

I was having trouble falling asleep. I was thinking what if we couldn't break the spell and stay as dinosaurs forever? That way there will be no point in returning to the real world. Except for birds, dinosaurs don't really have a place in modern society.

A few minutes later, I finally fell asleep.

Early the next morning, I woke up. The sun is shininh once again and the fire was long burned out.

I yamned and strechted.

Wait, why does my skin feel so... weird? It's like I'm wearing a leather jacket all over my body. Not to mention the feather-mane that I had since yesterday.

That's when I realized my armsfeel weird as well. It's like they're much shorter than usual.

I looked down and confirmed this was true. My arms were indeed really short. They are about as long as my normal palm. They were tipped with only two short, clawed fingers. In shock, I screamed "Dora!"

She woke up instantly. I gasped. She had changed too!

Her normally fair brown human skin was now a thick, hard, leathery green hide, almost like a rhino's skin. Instead of a mouth, she had a beak, like a parrot's. She also had a long tail sticking up from between her legs.

Frightened, I looked at myself. I had a tail too! It was longer than Dora's, and was a dark red.

Dora was frightened as well. "Mac! Your skin! It's so thick and red!"

"You're skin's thick too!" I replied. "But yours is green!"

We both screamed. This is terrible! We haven't even reached the center of the forest yet.

Eventually we regained our senses. Dora, still shaking a little, asked "How many days do we have left?"

I counted them, ...or at least I tried to count them. (Counting with only two fingers on each hand is awkward) "Well, it's been two days since we played with Archaeopteryx, so I guess we only have three days left."

Immediately we left our camp and began to run once more. We quickly became hungry, but we finished the entire energy bar last night.

The mere thought of the energy bar made us extremely thirsty.

We got so thirsty that we began to feel dehyrated.

Eventually we came across a small stream. We gulped up the water happily.

When I say "gulped up", I'm not kidding. It's as if the dinosaur in us is about to show anytime soon.

After drinking enough water we continued running through the forest once more.

After about... 2 hours? (I'm not so sure) we decided to rest again. I checked the map to see where we should go.

According to the map, we should be right around... here.

"Okay." I wondered aloud. "Now what do we do? Will something special happen to us? Hello?"

Suddenly, we heard a sound. A voice. "Help."

"Who said that?" I called aloud.

The voice didn't answer. It just said "Help" again.

"Where is it coming from?" Dora asked.

"I don't know." I replied.

I suddenly had a thought. If we were turning into dinosaurs, then maybe our sense of hearing was turning into a dinosaur's sense of hearing. But it's also possible that we're still human enough that our hearing still isn't affected. So that doesn't offer any clie as to who that voice is coming from.

"Help, someone!" The voice said again. The voice sounded rough, as if whoever that was was trying to sound like a crocodile.

"It's coming from that way!" said Dora, who pointed her elephant-linke hand at the direction on the sound. We followed it.

What we saw shocked us.

There was a small dinosaur, a baby Edmontosaurus, trapped in a net tied to a tree.

Immediately, my heart sank. Who would do such a thing? I decided to be brave and help the dinosaur. I bit through the knot that tied up the net and the Edmontosaurus ran free.

Wait, why did I bite through the net? That's gross. I wouldn't do that.

"Are you alright?" Dora asked kindly.

"Yes. Thank you." replied the Edmontosaurus.

Suddenly, we heard a roar coming through the forest. Followed by at least 20 more roars.

Lots of dinosaurs, all from different types, rushed out of the woods all at once. Dora pulled myself close to her to make us feel safe. We were being surrounded.

One dinosaur, an adult Stegosaurus, came forward and walked towards us.

It spoke in this mysterious voice. "Did you just trap a member of our pack? The punishment more that is... death!"

"No!" we both shouted at the same time. We didn't want to die.

"Don't touch us our we'll eat you!" I shouted at the Stegosaurus.

"You will pay for this!" she shouted back.

"Wait!" a low, deep voice shouted.

Everybody stopped and turned to look at the source of this voice.

An adult Apatosaurus, larger than any of the other dinosaurs in the pack, proudly stepped closer to the pack. He semmed to be the leader.

"But, Ajax", the Stegosaurus said firmly, "We were going to punish them for trapping one of our members."

"Is that so, Steno?" Ajax replied. "Do you have proof of this?"

"They weren't trapping me." the Edmontosaurus interrupted. "They helped get me out of that net."

"Is that so?" Ajax replied, looking at Edmontosaurus and then to us.

Before we could answer, Ajax spoke again. "You've been hit with the Dino Spell, haven't you?"

"Um... uh... Yes, Mr. Ajax... sir." I replied.

"I knew it! I knew they trapped our Edmontosaurus!" shouted Steno. "Only humans who are cruel to dinosaurs can be placed under the Dino Spell."

"...And that is MORE reason for us to kill them! Muhahahaha!"

"I don't think they would be cruel to dinosaurs, Steno." said Ajax.

"But Ajax" Steno replied, "They must hate dinosaurs or else they wouldn't be placed under the spell."

"It was an accident.." I explained. "An Archaeopteryx from your Kingdom entered our world and accidentally placed the spell on us."

Steno would only manically laugh in reaction.

"But it's true!" I shouted again.

"I've had enough of this! I'll go kill them myself!" Steno charged at us, raising her spiked tail in the air.

"It was a mistake!" said a high-pitched female voice.

An Archaeopteryx clumsily flew into the scene.

"Litho!" Ajax spoke. "What are you doing here?"

Litho flew towards us and apologized. "I'm sorry for placing the spell on you."

"That's okay." Dora replied. "It's just an accident."

"You have no ill will towads dinosaurs" said Ajax. "We will assist you on your quest to become human again."

"Thank you, Ajax." We bowed in respect.

Ajax ordered his pack to go towards the East. We could see Steno grumbling as she walked, frustatred on not having the chance to kill us.

Somewhere down the road Ajax called for someone. "Magni!"

A tough, male Ankylosaurus came up to him. "What is it, Ajax?"

"Will you help these children return to their human selves?"

"Yes, Ajax. It will be my pleasure."

We continued walking. As we were walking, I noticed that I seemed to be taller than most of the dinosaurs in the pack. From here I could count at least 40 dinosaurs are now in the pack.

Several hours later, we had stopped in a clearing. Ajax ordered everybody to stop and rest for the night. Me and Dora rested next to Magni, sitting underneath a large tree.

"Are you two hungry?" Magni asked.

A conveniently-timed grumble of my tummy signaled yes.

"What would you like?"

"I'm not sure." I replied. I mean, what do dinosaurs eat? Well, it depends on the species. A Tyrannosaurus rex, like me, eats raw meat. A Triceratops, like Dora, eats wild plants. Both were yucky to us.

"Here, take these." offered Magni, who was holding some fruits on top of her head. "These are mangoes."

The mangoes were bright yellow. Definitely different from the reddish mangoes I eat back in the real world. I got one and ate it. It was very sweet and juicy.

I got one for Dora and told her to tryone. From the look on her face it looks like she really likes it.

"Gracias." we told Magni, who laid down to rest again.

Some time later Steno happened to pass by Magni, who was sleeping. I could see him hit Magni's face with the spikes on his tail.

"HOW DARE YOU SERVE THESE LOSERS!" she shouted angrily, with steam rising from her face. Magni woke up.

"Hey, that's not nice!" I shouted at Steno.

He only continued fuming in place. Magni explained "As a father, it is my duty to take care of these children."

Steno's plates became blood red as she uttered a cryptic phrase, "They will not replace Tutus, Magni."

She then walked away, still with steam rising from her face.

Dora then turned to Magni. "Why does Steno hate us so much?"

"He just hates humans for no reason" Magni calmly explained.

"And who's Tutus?" I asked.

Magni teared up before explaining everything. "Tutus was a baby Euoplocephalus. He was the only dinosaur that had a tail club like me in this whole pack. We were best friends. But then..."

"Then what?"

"The Paleontologist took him."

"Why would a paleontologist take a living dinosaur. Don't they only study dinosaur fossils?"

"This paleontologist is different" explained Ajax, who somehow came here and overheard our conversation.

"This paleontologist is also a mad scientist. He brought dinosaur fossils to life and experimented on them, I mean us..."

"So you're actually the Paleontologist's dinosaurs?"

"Yes, and we hate it. Anyway, he experimented on.. us... so that we would be able to speak to humans. He let us roam free..."

"...but now he's capturing us again and using us to take over the world! Baby Tutus is just one of those dinosaurs. I can't imagine what happened to her."

"Aww, that's so sad." Both of us teared up this time.

"I know." said Magni, now with tears in his eyes as well. "Don't cry anymore my children. Go to sleep."

"Goodnight." we said as we both went to sleep.

As we were alseep, Steno was watching us. He was waiting for the chance to get back at us.

Suddenly, the smell of dust and chemicals, came to his nose. He instinctively ran towards its source.

The source of the smell was a tall man in a lab coat and strong boots. He had a pickaxe in his and long, gray frizzed hair and beard. He spoke in a cunning voice.

"What are you doing here?" he asked Steno.

"Waiting for you." came his quick reply.

"Hmm, it's not often to see your test subjects deliberately waiting for you." the man thought. "They're learning much quicker than I thought."

"If you would promise me leadership over the dinosaur pack," offered Steno, who was now speaking in a cunning voice, "I will give you the two rarest dinosaurs in the world."

"They are smart and make the perfect leaders for your dinosaur army."

"They can help you take over the world!"

The man grinned and put out his hand. Steno put up on of his elephant-like feet and the two shook hands.

Early the next morning, I woke up.

After yawning and stretching, I suddenly realized that I hadn't called my family ever since I came in here for Chapter 2.

Not that I could call them though. My mouse, which acted as my phone in this world, was still in Dora's house.

Suddenly, I heard a voice. Or rather, two voices. I looked in their direction and saw Ajax and Steno arguing.

"Steno, what's wrong?" asked Ajax.

"I was patrolling the clearing when I saw someone." replied Steno.

"And who is that?"

"The Paleontologist."

Everybody gasped at this statement.

"He has learned of the children." continued Steno.

Now we were really shocked.

"How could this happen?" said Magni. "And what does he want with them."

"It appears he wants them to be the leaders of his dinosaur army." said Steno who was walking towards us.

"He thinks they're dinosaurs with the intelligence of humans, the rarest dinosaurs in the world."

"How horrible!" I shouted. I never imagined this mad scientist this, you know, mad.

"There's only one way to help you." Steno exclaimed. "Ajax" he called, "can I lead these children away from you for a while?"

"Sure." Ajax replied. "Wait, didn't you call them losers just earlier? Why would you want to help "losers"?"

"Oh, I guess I was just not feeling well at the time." replied Steno.

He turned to us. "I'm sorry if I called you losers. Will you please forgive me?"

Dora replied, "Si." then I joined in. "All is forgiven."

There was something suspicious about how quickly Steno changed his ways. Like he has a bigger agenda behind him.

Suddenly, a large truck came out of the bushes and began to follow us.

Steno led us running through the forest. All the while the truck was following us. Suddenly she stopped.

We stopped a few feet behind her. Steno then turned towards us, stepping on a rope in the process. Suddenly, we were trapped under a hunter's net that dropped from the trees.

I called to Steno, "Help us!"

Instead of helping us, Steno simply looked at us and grinned. "Finally, I caught you."

"You betrayed us!" I shouted.

A few minutes later the truck caught up with us. A man in a lab coat stepped out.

He looked at Steno and said, "I guess we have a deal."

"Wait. You SOLD us to this crazy man?" I shouted at Steno.

Turning to Dora, I whispered "Who is that man anyway?"

"El Cientifico Loco, one of my greatest enemies" came the reply.

Suddenly El Cientifico comes to us, apparently overhearing our conversation. "Hmm, it seems like these rare dinosaurs really do have a human intelligence. Steno really didn't lie to me."

Instead of freeing us, El Cientifico picks up the net with us in it and puts it in the back of his truck, before driving off.

As we drove off, I could see Magni chasing after us. We shout towards him, "Help us! Please!"

"Let my children go!" he shouts at El Cientifico, but he doesn't seem to understand him.

The truck speeds off and Magni runs towards Steno.

"Steno what have you done!" Magni angrily shouts at Steno.

She bows his head in shame and replies. "I've made a mistake. A big mistake."


End file.
